Fossils at Mich-E-Ke-Wis Park

 Mich-E-Ke-Wis Park overlooks Lake Huron in Alpena, Michigan USA. Huge boulders line the waterline are a good place to explore to see so many fossils. So many death ensembles of a lot of brachiopod fossils as shown in first 2 pictures. My foot as reference shows how big an area the fossils are spread. Below shows Atrypa (Hall, 1862) brachiopods in close up.

 

 

This next picture shows a panoramic of coastline to explore.

The following picture shows the marks made by glacier movement thousands of years ago.

Last picture is of a large Hexagonaria (Whitefield, 1882) fossil.

Great place to visit. They have a nice playground and nice restaurants next to the park with great lake side views.

Crinoid Stem Wampum

 

This month I paid a brief visit to the Besser Museum at Alpena, Michigan, USA. They had a large exhibit on Native American artifacts found in Michigan. While it was not identified as the above pictures are wampum that had threaded sting of crinoid columnals according to the 2018 book 101 American Fossil Sites you've gotta see by Albert Binkley Dickas (pages 98-99). It makes sense as while fossil hunting in Alpena I found quite a few crinoid stems. Though I am not sure since the exhibit was labeled "Various Shell Beads". It is looks like the shells where cut in circles and then a hole drilled in the middle. So they look like crinoid stems.

The Besser Museum for Northwest Michigan was named for Jesse Besser (1882-1970) who perfected and produced machines that create these famous concrete blocks. Out in the yard is a huge boulder sized Hexagonaria (Gürich, 1896) coral fossil (see my foot for size reference). They also have areas where you can search for and keep fossils from material dumped there from local quarry.

Predation on Atrypa Brachiopod Fossil

 

Here is a cool picture of an Atrypa (Hall, 1862) brachiopod fossil (note the circle in the top left corner probably made by a gastropod). The fossil was found in the Genshaw Formation at Carmeuse Quarry, Rogers City, Michigan USA. The creature lived Middle Devonian Period (Erian Stage).